Horizontal Information Drives the Behavioral Signatures of Face Processing

Recent psychophysical evidence indicates that the vertical arrangement of horizontal information is particularly important for encoding facial identity. In this paper we extend this notion to examine the role that information at different (particularly cardinal) orientations might play in a number of established phenomena each a behavioral “signature” of face processing. In particular we consider (a) the face inversion effect (FIE), (b) the facial identity after-effect, (c) face-matching across viewpoint, and (d) interactive, so-called holistic, processing of face parts. We report that filtering faces to remove all but the horizontal information largely preserves these effects but conversely, retaining vertical information generally diminishes or abolishes them. We conclude that preferential processing of horizontal information is a central feature of human face processing that supports many of the behavioral signatures of this critical visual operation

Randomized placebo-controlled cross-over designs in clinical trials : a gold-standard to be reassessed

Placebo effects are well-known phenomena in medicine and biology. In fact, placebos are used as control conditions in randomized cross-over clinical trials to validate new treatments. Only recently, however, has it become apparent that the conditioning and/or expectation effects provided by the experience of placebos can influence the results of clinical trials. It seems that combining shams and sequences has prejudiced the conclusions provided by cross-over designs. Frighteningly, this bias is always in the same direction, namely to increase the risk of rejecting potentially valid treatments. New models for clinical trials should be encouraged if we wish to market new and truly valid treatments

Review of the Physical Aspects of Osmotic Pressure

It should be mentioned that this paper deals mostly with the work done by others and only a certain portion is original. The student wishes to state that he is presenting a thesis that would be considered theoretical and not empirical. The history of the work done in the field of osmotic pressure is treated at length and much of the theory used by the experimenters is derived. Many periodicals carry the papers written by the scientists of osmotic pressure and some of these men have spent perhaps fifteen of twenty years on their experiments

Deciphering the role of endogenous opioids in high frequency TENS using low and high doses of naloxone

Abstract : Previous human studies have shown that the analgesic effect of high frequency TENS could not be reversed by low doses of naloxone. The aim of the present study was to reinvestigate the possible contribution of opioid receptors in high frequency TENS analgesia by using low (0.02 mg/kg) and high (0.14 mg/kg) doses of naloxone. Naloxone (high and low doses) and saline were administered intravenously to young healthy adults using a double-blind randomised cross-over design. For each visit, TENS (100 Hz, 60 sec) was applied for 25 minutes to the external surface of the left ankle. TENS intensity was adjusted to obtain strong but comfortable (innocuous) paresthesias. Experimental pain was evoked with a 1 cm2 thermode applied on the lateral aspect of the left heel. Subjective pain scores were obtained before, during and after TENS. Because preliminary analyses showed that the order of presentation affected the pattern of results, only the first visit of every participant could be analyzed without fear of contamination from possible carry-over effects. These revealed that TENS maintained its analgesic properties following the injection of saline (p<.001) and the injection of a low dose of naloxone (p<.05). However, when a high dose of naloxone was administered, TENS analgesia was completely blocked (p=.20). These results strongly suggest that high frequency TENS involves opioid receptors. An insufficient amount of opioid antagonist likely prevented previous human studies from discovering the importance of opioid receptors in producing high frequency/ low intensity TENS analgesia